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New Post 8/8/2008 4:55 PM
User is offline Rory Purcell-Hewitt
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The Role of the Business Analyst in Technology 
I currently work as a business analyst for the technology division of a New Zealand financial organisation which employs ~11000 staff (~450 in IT). We’ve recently created a business analyst community within IT to help with collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and the breaking down of barriers between process and organisational silos. As a part of this, we’re attempting to understand exactly what the role of a business analyst is within technology and what their interaction is (or should be) with our business customers.

Our model is for the business analyst seems to be mostly one where business requirements are supplied by subject matter experts or project teams from the business, and we take it forward through the rest of the software development lifecycle. The issue we’re encountering with this model is that we either get very sketchy business requirements provided where we end up doing extra work to fix up what has been provided, or the business has leapt into “solution mode” and attempted to design their end-solution. In the end, we basically have a disconnect between the project management methodology used by the business, and the SDLCs used by IT.

Those of us who have had more formal training (e.g. tertiary study, etc.) feel that the business analyst is meant to be engaged early in the project and conducts the full analysis work from elicitation of the business requirements onwards until implementation. This is reinforced by the IIBA’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge.

What I’m after is an idea of how other organisations use their business analysts and how they interact with their business customers. We can then use this knowledge to help drive our community forward to a place where we can optimise the technology experience for our business customers. To this end, could you please let me know how it works for your current organisation or whichever places you’ve previously worked?

Rory Purcell-Hewitt
Business Analyst - ANZ National Technology
My Identities:  Socialthing!  Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn  
 
New Post 9/10/2008 7:05 AM
User is offline Devon
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www.devonjohnston.com
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Re: The Role of the Business Analyst in Technology 
Modified By Devon  on 9/10/2008 11:47:50 AM)

After working for several companies as a BA, (all do it slightly different), here is what I have found.

BAs should be one of the first engagers on the project.

BAs are often given great responsiblity with no authority.

BAs are often given work that no one else wants to do, that does not fall under the BA Role Definition.

If their Role is not defined and enforced, they will find themselves doing tech support, testing, tech writing, training, coordinating, secretarial work for their boss, and junk work for IT, etc...

In my experience, I have always done the BA role and the PM role, but because my title is BA, I don' t have PM authority. IT folks are constantly jumping in trying to take over the project, (they have done the analysis in the past, so this is a natural thing for them to do, and will only be stopped by a strong BA department)..  For this reason, I believe BAs should have their own office (BAO) simliar to the PMO and should report to a Senior BA.

Business Architect, PM, and BA, should be on the same level, working together on the project.

(After I came up with this idea, I discovered companies are heading in this direction and some are doing this now.  I recently saw a job in Canada that sounds like they have the BAs reporting to the PMO office. I would take it one step farther and have the BAs with their own office.

I have  a PowerPoint Presentation of the flow of a project and how the BAs interact if you are interested. Because it is so loosely defined, I have spent a lot of time defining it, just for my own personal pleasure. If you are interested, I will post it on my website so you can view it.  (It is too large to post here)

In addition I would suggest a Senior BA be assigned to setup and define the role.

 Job Description:

POSITION SUMMARY 
 

The Team Lead, PMO Business Analyst Team will support all Business Analysts within the Global BB / EMEA IT PMO, assisting with the prioritization of team workload, and supporting team relationships within departmental business units.  The Team Lead will also work with the Manager, ... Operations PMO to ensure global standards, processes and documentation for the Business Analyst role are designed, implemented and followed.

ACCOUNTABILITIES:
  • Plan and coordinate team efforts in support of team and departmental business unit goals
  • Ensure successful relationships are built with departmental business units
  • Ensure a roadmap of individual and overall departmental business unit deliverables (as relates to projects, or beyond as individual departmental business units require) is collated and accurately maintained
  • Completion of staff appraisals and setting of objectives, in conjunction with Manager, NA BlackBerry Operations PMO
  • Day-to-day management of the team, including acting first point of escalation for all Business Analyst team issues
  • Development and maintenance of local and global standards to assist with business goals
  • Production of regular management reports for team status
  • Maintain skills matrix, and training plans, with all team
  • Perform the role of Business Analyst on projects where required

 

 

 
New Post 9/10/2008 12:02 PM
User is offline Adrian M.
764 posts
3rd Level Poster




Re: The Role of the Business Analyst in Technology 

Hi John,

The idea of having a separate office for the business analysts has been circulating for a while and it's beginning to gain some ground.  The term which has been used in the industry is Center of Excellence.

Take a look at these:

Business Analysis Center of Excellence

Establishing and Maturing a Business Analysis Center of Excellence: The Essential Guide

- Adrian


Adrian Marchis
Business Analyst Community Blog - Post your thoughts!
 
New Post 10/3/2008 5:45 AM
User is offline ProModeler
4 posts
requirements.seilevel.com/blog/
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Re: The Role of the Business Analyst in Technology 

As a Requirement/Product Manager consultant, also considered a business analyst in some offices,  I have found that I  have a very important role as the principal source who will gather, analyze, document, and validate the needs of different stakeholders.  I have been able to provide a communications bridge between a pure business focused stakeholder and the teams developing software in organizations.  I have played a central role in collecting and disseminating software product information.  This is a key role in any project team where we can reduce the wasted development/project efforts with our skill and straddle the gulf between vague customer/business ideas, and the clear specifications that guide software development.   Typical tasks that I have engaged in include:

·         Identifying and interviewing project Stakeholders,

·         Use Cases, and Eliciting Requirements

·         Identifying and defining the business need, goals and objectives in quantifiable and measurable ways

·         Analyzing the requirements gathered, looking for gaps, or implicit requirements

·         Writing the Requirement Specifications

·         Modeling the Requirements

·         Validating and tracing, and prioritizing the requirements

 
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